Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-05-14-Speech-3-018"
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"en.20030514.1.3-018"2
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"Mr President, I visited Iraq 12 days ago. I spent 8 days in the south, reviewing the public health situation in my capacity as the World Health Organisation's Special Envoy. I listened to the people. I met with 50 tribal leaders, upwards of 20 000 Marsh Arabs, and I reviewed and inspected extensively hospitals and primary health clinics in Basra, Al-Amara and other smaller towns and villages. I re-opened the World Health Organisation Office and I set up a clinic now dealing with 15 000 medical consultations a month.
The people are relishing their freedom. Their joyfulness is tempered only by the continuation of the bitter legacy of Saddam. Their lives were malignly regulated down to the smallest detail. Saddam modelled his total control on Stalin, whom he emulated. The ordinary Iraqi family's purchase, even of one bar of soap, was politically directed and controlled. When sentenced to ear amputation, the prisoner had to seek out and pay the surgeon to perform the mutilation. The more money the prisoner was able to offer, the more ear the surgeon permitted to remain intact. A trade in human flesh, a cruel bargain with Saddam Hussein - for Saddam owned the Iraqi people's every movement from tear-sodden cradle to early and unquiet grave. These systems are still intact and throttling the Iraqi people.
It is early days. The coalition forces are doing fine work, particularly in the south and in delivering public health to the people of Iraq. The United Nations - especially the World Health Organisation - is now fully engaged and is using its specialist skills to excellent effect. However, the UN can only do so much in such a complex and difficult political situation. Patience is needed, as is the continuing security provided by the coalition forces, to give the Iraqi people the time and space they need to unravel the evil web Saddam wove so skilfully around them.
The task now is to help the people to enjoy their freedom and to entrench it constitutionally and politically for future generations."@en1
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